February 10, 2012

Sandia one of the ‘greatest research institutions in the world,’ visiting Energy Secretary Steven Chu says

SECRETARY OF ENERGY Steven Chu, right, and Labs Director Paul
Hommert share a light moment at the Steve Schiff Auditorium during a
town hall meeting with members of the workforce. During his late-January
visit to Sandia, Chu also toured Sandia’s solar facility, conducted a
roundtable discussion with Sandia business partners, and conducted a
news conference with members of the local media. View large image. (Photo by Randy
Montoya)

Energy Secretary Steven Chu says it's no accident President Obama in
his State of the Union urged the nation to look to the federal
laboratories and research universities to create the foundation for
future prosperity.

Chu visited Sandia and the University of New Mexico on Jan. 26,
touring Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility, and learning
about solar glitter, Sunshine to Petrol, and similar projects. At an
industrial partnership roundtable Chu heard about the Stingray project,
Sandia’s partnership with Emcore and other local businesses, and the
New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program.

The United States has the greatest research organizations in the
world, and Sandia is a critical part of that in nuclear security,
environmental innovation, research and development, “and broadly for
bringing high-technology manufacturing back to the United States,” Chu
told a town hall at Sandia’s Steve Schiff Auditorium, where every seat
was taken. Many who could not be seated stayed to watch a video feed of
the event in the lobby, and thousands more watched from their
desktops.

The race for the future

Chu’s brief visit came two days after the State of the Union, in
which the president urged Americans not to let other countries win the
race for the future, but rather to “support the same kind of research
and innovation that led to the computer chip and the Internet; to new
American jobs and new American industries.”

Several questions at the town hall echoed those concerns. One
questioner told Chu he worried about how national laboratories could
recruit talented people when budgets are tight and they’re competing
against Google and similar innovative companies.

Chu acknowledged Google employees make a lot of money, and that
people would not get rich working on nuclear security or solutions to
climate change. But he said people at the Labs work on things they
really believe in, that are “cool and neat and really important to the
United States and the world.”

“Think about what you guys are doing,” he said. “This is a good thing.”

What will keep people at Sandia, or anywhere, is the quality of the
teams they work on and “is the problem they’re working on exciting, is
the work interesting, does the manager shield them from some of the
things the DOE tries to make them do?” Chu said.

Reinvest savings in research

The Energy Department, he said, wants to create an atmosphere where
people are not “hassled” and where money saved on overhead can be
reinvested into science.

“If they’re working alone in a basement and all they have is a red
stapler, that’s not good,” he said. After a slight pause, Chu laughed,
and suggested the audience see the movie “Office Space.”

The secretary said the labs, which he referred to as “intellectual
powerhouses,” give people freedom to explore, ability to work in
cross-disciplinary teams, and time to develop an idea to the point
private industry becomes interested.

“Some great achievements come from gradually pecking at it, pecking at it, pecking at it, and improving it,” Chu said.

But he warned that a country that invents something does not have a
claim on it forever. In the few years between the Wright brothers’
flight and World War I, the United States lost its advantage in
aviation, and today it’s fighting to regain supremacy in the automotive
and photovoltaic industries, he said.

He also said national laboratory innovations must get to market. A
questioner followed up on that, asking how to move more technology to
the commercialization stage.

Get IP to the private sector

While it’s important not to give away patents, Chu said, it’s also
important to get intellectual property to the private sector by
streamlining the process and making it more flexible. He also said each
tech transfer must be judged on its merits, and that exclusive licenses
should not be forbidden because, in many cases without one, no one
picks up the patent.

If national laboratories can make tech transfer less of a hassle,
“it enables me to go to Congress, and say, ‘Hey, we are your financial
future; fund us,’” he said.

Responding to a question about how to keep policies from changing
with every federal administration, Chu said the President’s Council of
Advisors on Science and Technology has begun addressing the need for
long-term planning through the first quadrennial review of energy
technology and how to fund it. The plan is to be reviewed every four
years, he said.

“It’s going to be the basis going forward,” said Chu, who pointed
out the timescale to move from one form of energy to another typically
runs a couple of decades to half a century.

“You want to have a long-term view,” he said. “It’s not clear what’s actually going to win when it’s in a research program.”

The secretary urged Sandians to be proud of what they do. “Our
country’s counting on you guys to pull through on this one,” he said,
and drew laughter when he added, “And we hope that Congress will also
count on you guys to pull through.”
--Sue Major Holmes

Sandia tool determines value of solar photovoltaic power systems

Sandia researcher Geoff Klise worked with Solar Power Electric™ to develop a tool that can be used to appraise photovoltaic installations on homes and businesses. View large image. (Photo by Randy Montoya)

Consistent appraisals of homes and businesses outfitted with
photovoltaic (PV) installations are a real challenge for the nation’s
real estate industry, but a new tool developed by Sandia and Solar
Power Electric™ and licensed by Sandia addresses that issue. Sandia
scientists, in partnership with Jamie Johnson of Solar Power Electric,
have developed PV Value™, an electronic form to standardize appraisals.
Funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the
tool will provide appraisers, real estate agents, and mortgage
underwriters with more accurate values for PV systems.

“Previous methods for appraising PV installations on new or
existing construction have been challenging because they were not using
standard appraisal practices,” says Geoff Klise (6926), the Sandia
researcher who co-developed the tool. “Typically, appraisers develop
the value of a property improvement based on comparable properties with
similar improvements as well as prevailing market conditions. If there
aren’t PV systems nearby, there is no way to make an improvement
comparison.”

Before developing the PV Value tool, Geoff went through an
appraising class focused on valuing energy-efficient features to better
understand how to address the industry’s needs. “When a PV system is
undervalued or not valued at all, it essentially ignores the value of
the electricity being produced and the potential savings over the
lifetime of the system,” Geoff says. “By developing a standard
methodology for appraisers when comparables are not available,
homeowners will have more incentive to install PV systems, even if they
consider moving a few years after system installation.”

The tool uses an Excel spreadsheet, tied to real-time lending
information and market fluctuations, to determine the worth of a PV
system. An appraiser enters such variables as the ZIP code where the
system is located, the system size in watts, the derate factor — which
takes into account shading and other factors that affect a system’s
output — tracking, tilt and azimuth, along with a few other factors,
and the spreadsheet returns the value of the system as a function of a
predetermined risk spread. The solar resource calculation in the
spreadsheet is based on the PVWatts simulator developed by the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, which allows the spreadsheet to value a
PV system anywhere in the US.

“With PV Value, appraisers can quickly calculate the present value
of energy that a PV system can be estimated to produce during its
remaining useful lifetime, similar to the appraisal industry’s income
approach,” says Johnson. “Additionally, a property owner thinking about
installing PV can now estimate the remaining present value of energy
for their future PV system and what it could be worth to a purchaser of
their property at any point in time in the event a sale of the
property takes place before the estimated payback date is reached.”

The tool is being embraced by the Appraisal Institute, the nation’s
largest professional association of real estate appraisers. “From my
perspective as an appraiser, I see that this is a great tool to assist
the appraiser in valuations, and it connects to the Appraisal
Institute’s recent Residential Green and Energy Efficient Addendum.
It’s an easy, user-friendly spreadsheet that will not bog the appraiser
down with a lot of extra time in calculations, and if they fill out
the addenda properly, they’ll be able to make the inputs and come up
with some numbers fairly quickly,” says Sandy Adomatis, a real estate
appraiser and member of the Appraisal Institute.

Although the tool is licensed for solar PV installations, it could
be used for other large green features in a home that generate income,
such as wind turbines. The spreadsheet, user manual, and webinar
explaining the tool are available for download at
http://pv.sandia.gov/pvvalue.

Solar Power Electric, located in Port Charlotte, Fla., is an
electrical contracting and solar integration company specializing in the
installation of commercial and residential photovoltaic systems.

Prestigious Asian American event comes to Albuquerque

PLANNING TEAM —Sandians (left to right) Chui Fan Chen Cheng (2661), Eliot Fang (1524), and Tammy Strickland (9512) go over plans for the 2012 Asian American Engineer of the Year Award meeting and banquet to be held March 2-3 at the Albuquerque Marriott Uptown. “This has been a great experience,” says Eliot, chair of the event’s Executive Committee. View large image. (Photo by Randy Montoya)

A few years ago, Al Romig, then executive VP at Sandia, took note of the annual Asian American Engineer of the Year award ceremony, a major event that draws hundreds of people to cities around the country. He asked a question: Why can’t we bring it to Albuquerque?

Al left Sandia for a VP position at Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works, but his question remained and has now been answered. The 2012 Asian American Engineer of the Year (AAEOY) celebration will be held in Albuquerque March 2-3 at the Marriott Uptown.

“It is a great honor to host this event,” says Eliot Fang (1524), the Sandia engineer who chairs the AAEOY 2012 Executive Committee. “This is a national award ceremony with technical seminars, career information, and a formal banquet. It’s usually held in larger cities.”

Sandia and Lockheed Martin Corp. are Title Sponsors of AAEOY 2012. The program recognizes outstanding Asian American professionals in science and engineering for their technical achievement and public service. It was launched in 2002 and is organized by the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA (CIE-USA), founded in 1917.

Nine Sandians have been honored

In the past 10 years, 181 people have received the AAEOY Award and
27 the special Distinguished Award. Honorees include eight Nobel
laureates, academics, key corporate executives, and an astronaut. Nine
Sandians have received the award since 2002.

“We are excited about the opportunity to help host this year’s
Asian American Engineer of the Year event,” says Kim Sawyer, Sandia
executive VP and deputy Laboratories director. “Sandia’s Asian
Leadership and Outreach Committee (ALOC), which represents 288 Asian
Americans at the New Mexico lab, is planning an exceptional event that
will reach out to a national audience.”

Kimberly Admire, VP of Diversity, Inclusion and Equal Opportunity
Programs at Lockheed Martin Corp., says AAEOY “provides an opportunity
to recognize talented Asian American men and women for their
contributions in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics) and leadership.

“Lockheed Martin is honored to support the AAEOY awards organized by
the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA,” she says. “We are delighted
this year’s event is being held in Albuquerque, and we look forward to
hosting some of the activities for AAEOY 2012.”

CIE-USA has seven chapters — Dallas, New York, New Mexico, Overseas
Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association, San
Francisco, Seattle, and Southern California — and is governed by a
national council made up of rotating delegates. The current chair is
Yung Sung Cheng of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in
Albuquerque.

Seventeen people from across the US will be recognized at this
year’s awards banquet. About 450 attendees are expected. Three Sandians
are on the list of honorees: Hongyou Fan (1815), Ming Lau (8230), and
Rekha Rao (1514). There will also be a Distinguished Lifetime
Achievement Award and a Distinguished Science & Technology Award.
Nominations come from corporations, academics, government, and
scientific institutions. A review committee from the CIE-USA New Mexico
Chapter selected the winners based on specific criteria.

Small chapter, big ambitions

The New Mexico chapter put in its application to host the AAEOY
several years ago. The request came up at the 2010 CIE-USA National
Council meeting in New York. Council members had to decide whether
Albuquerque had the resources to be the host city.

“There was some debate,” says Chui Fan Chen Cheng (2661), who had
been asked by Al to explore the possibility of Albuquerque being a
host. “We are a small chapter. We had never hosted a major event. Some
people questioned whether we could do it.”

When Albuquerque got the nod, the local chapter formed the 2012
AAEOY Executive Committee headed by Eliot, an AAEOY honoree in 2006.

Chui had polled chapter members on their interest, and knew there
was enough manpower. Eight subcommittees worked on tasks ranging from
fundraising and publicity to logistics and information technology. In
all, about 75 people have been involved in planning the event, which
has numerous industry partners and sponsors.

The subcommittees are staffed by Sandians as well as engineers from
Intel, the Lovelace institute, the University of New Mexico, and other
organizations.

Shows Sandia’s diversity, inclusion

“This has been a great experience,” Eliot says of heading up the
planning. “We have two DOE national labs in New Mexico. We have an Air
Force Research Lab. We have Intel. We have Emcore. We have research
parks. We have universities. People don’t realize New Mexico plays a
critical role in advancing the future of science and technology due to
the institutions we have here and the work we do.”

Tammy Strickland (9512), Sandia executive liaison for AAEOY 2012,
chair of the event’s hospitality subcommittee, and head of the ALOC,
says Asian Americans are not numerous in Albuquerque, so an event of
this stature brings visibility to that community. “And it shows that
Sandia has diversity and inclusion, and that the executives support
that,” she says.

Chui, who chairs the fundraising subcommittee, says the planning and
hard work have paid off. She says the two-day event will feature a
technical tour of Sandia for the award event participants; a pre-award
dinner at the Albuquerque International Balloon Museum; a cultural tour
of Old Town, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, and the Atomic Museum;
a seminar; a VIP reception sponsored by Sandia and Lockheed Martin;
and the award ceremony and banquet at the Marriott Uptown. Sandia
President and Labs Director Paul Hommert is the keynote speaker.

“It’s a big deal, and we feel we have a lot to offer in this event,”
Chui says. “We can introduce people to the Southwest. And it’s a
showcase opportunity for Sandia. We have a lot of technology to
showcase.”

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.